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> If a project is reasonably popular, say a thousand users, and each user on average has to spend an hour to figure out how to use it, then that is 1,000 hours
by vosper 9y ago
> If a project is reasonably popular, say a thousand users, and each user on average has to spend an hour to figure out how to use it, then that is 1,000 hours wasted. The developer, could instead have spent say 8 hours writing documentation to save the users that one hour (* 1000).
That's true, although it's worth remembering that the 1,000 hours are other peoples time, not the developer's. It might be quite easy for a busy open-source developer (often working in spare time, already) to think "I've got other things I'd rather be doing".
Also, it's not just 8 hours one time - it's then ongoing maintenance. So you're spending time in order to create even more work for yourself in the future; documentation that doesn't exist doesn't have to be maintained alongside code changes.
We need documentation bounties, or something.
- GregBuchholz 9y ago>We need documentation bounties, or something. ...Are there write ups exploring what "or something" could possibly be? Like futures contracts or options or potentially other risk mitigation practices from the financial world? Something that would help with collaboration and help with getting the timing correct? As in, the best time to have the documentation is at the point, or right before some software becomes "popular". But that seems like the time you are least likely to have enough people contributing to bounties. Is there a way to encourage documentation writing speculators? Is there a way to minimize the bad effects (if any) of winner-take-all bounties in discouraging contributors? That is, for bounties, how do you know if someone isn't already working on the documentation unknown to you, and finishes it (and collects the bounty), one week before you finish your version? And the fear of this prevents people from starting in the first place. Is there a way to make "progress payments" on documentation bounties?
- vosper 9y agoI don't know, but you raise some really interesting points, and we didn't even talk about the quality of the documentation that might be produced. Bounties might be the wrong way to do it, but I can imagine a Patreon-style approach might work. Like "I'm the developer on this, and I'd rather be writing code. But if people contribute $X to my Patreon I will dedicate 5 hours a month to working on the documentation, instead".